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1/13/2010

How much of County dollars are spent on beach renourishment?

Commissioners,

It has come to my attention that New Hanover County will most likely be footing the bill to the towns of Wrightsville, Carolina, and Kure Beaches for their beach re-nourishment projects - a bill that looks to be roughly $3.7 million. Even though Kure, Carolina, and especially Wrightsville will admit to the making of millions of dollars from having meters, parking lots, and a beach. How much of this money, if any, comes from the taxpayers of New Hanover County? Assuming this money does not all come from room occupancy taxes, will any of you ever fight for discount parking passes for New Hanover County residents to be used at the area beaches? I have a feeling that some of my tax money is being spent for nourishment and the way I am thanked by the beach towns is to literally price me off of the beach with parking meters. If I have a vested interest in keeping the beaches nourished . . . I would surely like to be able to afford to go use them. Jeff McAllister

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Jeff, The money that New Hanover County uses for its share of the beach renourishment projects all comes from the Room Occupancy Tax (ROT), which is raised throughout the County by our hotels. I don’t think the county commissioners want to get into telling the elected officials of the beach communities how to run their towns. We have enough challenges as it is in county government. Tax dollars from the Federal and State governments are used to pay for the majority of the funding for beach renourishment. In that sense, tax dollars from you and me are going toward beach nourishment. Just as our tax dollars also go to fund National Parks in the middle of the country.

Bill Caster, County Commissioner

Posted at 9:36 AM by Caster, Bill | Category: Beach Renourishment | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (2)

9/23/2009

What's the Deal with Yard Waste?

Now that you have banned yard waste from putting it in the garbage can in an effort to keep America beautiful. What do you expect people to do with it? The sites you recommend to take it to are only open during the week. They charge a lot and you need a truck to take it. What if you work during the week and don’t have a truck? Are you trying to make the county look better or are you trying to not have people clean up their yards? I moved here from Mecklenburg County a few years ago. They had a county recycling site for yard waste that was open on weekends. They accepted yard waste for free turned it into mulch and sold mulch reasonable. I believe they operated the site on proceeds from the sales without County money. Dan Tato

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Mecklenburg County does have a site that accepts yard waste from municipalities, residents, and landscaping companies. Currently, the charge is $16.50 per ton for all customers. The waste is ground and sold as mulch. The cost for this process is $19.00 per ton (after the revenue from selling the mulch is taken into account) and the Enterprise Fund for solid waste makes up the difference (i.e., taken out of tipping fees collected). Recent legislation is causing Mecklenburg County to change this operation. Because yard waste can include fecal matter, the NC Department of Environment and Natural Resources (NCDENR) will no longer allow yard waste to be ground, then given out (or sold) as mulch. Composted material can be given out as mulch; however, that operation is changing because now any water which comes into contact with compost is no longer considered storm water and, therefore, must be collected and disposed of like we do with our leachate. In short, the process is becoming more expensive.

Our disposal facilities here in New Hanover County do not contain a method for collecting yard waste. If we had such a process, which can be done, we would be required to raise tipping fees to cover the cost of the facility and to comply with the recent NCDENR requirements. When customers call to ask what they can do with their yard waste, we give them the names, addresses, and telephone numbers of four private companies within the county that will take that debris. They are also listed on our web page at http://www.nhcgov.com/AgnAndDpt/ENVM/Pages/DisposalofOtherItems.aspx

Jonathan Barfield, Jr.

County Commissioner

Posted at 2:17 PM by Barfield, Jonathan | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (2)

9/15/2009

How will New Hanover County handle the new State law on recycling plastics?

With the 10/1/09 state requirements on recycling plastic bottles, among other items, must we depend on the trash haulers or has New Hanover County applied for an exemption? The prohibition against aluminum cans has been in effect for some time but we, in the unincorporated areas, have been placing aluminum cans in our regular garbage all along.

I and several of my neighbors are confused. Waste Industries, for example, has no plan for 10/1 for plastic bottles; should this include aluminum cans? Further, the information we have includes "ABC containers" as a banned item, but as I read the law, this includes only businesses with ABC permits.

Briefly, what happens 10/1? Our Homeowners' Association has gathered information on this matter, but I do not believe all of what we have is correct, and I know it is not complete.

Thank you for your time.

Tom Parker

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Response: I have asked John Hubbard, Director of the Environmental Management Department to respond to your question. Chairman Ted Davis

To answer your initial question, no we have not asked for an exemption on the state requirement for recycling plastic bottles. We have been working with the state on this issue for quite some time. State personnel have actually told us that, regarding residential waste, they do not feel there is much more that local government can do. They stated that the county and the towns have provided every household in New Hanover County with the opportunity to recycle (in New Hanover County’s case, with the seven drop-off sites).

You are correct, aluminum cans have been banned from both WASTEC and the landfill for some time. Our drop-off sites have a container for aluminum cans as well as plastics.

I have talked with the major haulers about this plastic bottle ban, in addition to the ban on oil filters and pallets at the landfill, all effective on October 1, 2009. The hauler you mentioned, Waste Industries, told me that they were gearing up to offer some form of recycling. This is exactly what the state wants to see – the haulers stepping up to help with recycling these items. If curbside recycling is offered by the haulers, I believe that it would be for more than one item. Therefore, it should include recycling aluminum cans.

You are correct regarding the ABC containers. The ban only affects businesses that have alcoholic beverage permits.

On October 1, our waste screeners will be looking for large producers of banned items. If we witness a violation, we will notify the hauler involved and request that he/she, in turn, takes action to notify the source of the violation.

We appreciate you and your Homeowners’ Association interest in recycling. Please do not hesitate to get in touch with me if you or your Homeowners’ Association have any further questions.

John H. Hubbard

Director, Department of Environmental Management

New Hanover County

Posted at 12:02 PM by Davis, Ted | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (7)

8/27/2009

Will there be opportunities to comment on EDZD?

The purpose of EDZD (Exceptional Design Zoning Designation) is to "provide opportunities for higher density projects within unincorporated New Hanover County." Will there be opportunities for citizens living within unincorporated NHC, to comment on EDZD before it is adopted?
Edmund "Beau" McCaffray

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Response: EDZD is an option that allows design flexibility to achieve higher density projects in areas where appropriate urban features exist. The intent of the proposed regulations is to discourage negative impacts of urban sprawl, preserve and protect natural resources, and diminish the need for vehicular traffic. The Planning Board held a public hearing on the draft regulations at its August meeting, but no one offered any comments at that time. The proposed text amendment will be presented to the Board of Commissioners in the near future, and a public hearing will be scheduled. To find out more about the "Exceptional Design Zoning District" and its benefits, visit the New Hanover County Planning Department website at http://www.nhcgov.com/AgnAndDpt/PLNG/Pages/EDZD.aspx and the County’s Facebook. It is important that we hear from you, the public, so we can consider everyone’s concerns and questions as we discuss these proposed regulations.

Please feel free to contact the Planning Department at 798-7165 or email Planning Director Chris O’Keefe at cokeefe@nhcgov.com with any questions. I’m looking forward to hearing your comments and discussing the issue.

Commissioner Bill Caster

Posted at 9:43 AM by Caster, Bill | Category: Zoning Matters | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (11)

8/21/2009

Can forced annexation be stopped?

"It seems very simple that the county could simply incorporate and stop any future forced annexation. The county pretty much already provides all of the services typically seen in a town or city and as far as the requirement for water and sewer, that is now the responsibility of the authority. If the county incorporated and raised taxes slightly, the residents would still be better off than being annexed against their will by the city and having their tax burden close to double. Just a thought."

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Response: The course of action to incorporate an area for a township or a city is quite extensive and is governed by the State. I believe the most efficient use of tax dollars is to have a consolidated government between the City of Wilmington and New Hanover County. No annexations would be necessary. I have supported consolidation of the two local governments since being elected in 1992. Although voters defeated a referendum to consolidate in 1995, the County Commissioners continued extensive discussions with Wilmington City Council during the years between 1999-2003. Our efforts to establish functional consolidation, whereby certain city and county departments such as Fire Services, Law Enforcements, Planning Departments, and the Parks and Recreation Departments, failed. But, we were successful in merging the City’s and County’s transportation services; and both water and sewer services were merged to create the Cape Fear Public Utility Authority.

I believe consolidation failed in 1995 because the beach communities were not included in the referendum and the population of the unincorporated areas of the County was more than the City’s population. A consolidated government would possibly decrease the total tax bill for a city resident, but a county resident in the unincorporated area would see an increase. Thus, consolidation has failed in past elections. I support consolidation because I believe that the entire County as a whole will benefit. I’m certainly willing to try those efforts again, but I think it will take a lot of citizen support to get it on the ballot.

Commissioner Bill Caster

Posted at 11:56 AM by Caster, Bill | Category: Annexation | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (1)

8/11/2009

“Why doesn’t the unincorporated area have curbside recycling?”

Response: Recycling was part of a previous effort to provide county-wide garbage collection. Unfortunately, that effort failed on a 3 to 2 vote by the County Commissioners in office at that time. I voted in favor of doing it. Recycling will be addressed in the proposals to be submitted for consideration by the present County Commissioners for solid waste management in the future.

Chairman Ted Davis Jr.

Posted at 2:20 PM by Davis, Ted | Category: Recycling | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (3)

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